Detective says businessman was tortured

ANDERSON - A detective testified Friday that Anderson businessman Chandrakant "C.J." Patel was kidnapped, tortured and shot to death this summer.

When it was over, investigators said, the four killers had gotten $70 from Patel and traded some crack to get another man to clean the blood stains from Patel's soon-to-be abandoned car.

About 10 days after his disappearance, Patel's body was discovered in a remote wooded area off U.S. 29 in Starr near Big Water Marina, just a few miles from the Georgia border. Patel had cuts all over his legs and a fatal bullet wound in his head, an autopsy showed.

The four people charged with murder, kidnapping, a weapons offense and armed robbery appeared at a preliminary hearing Friday and a judge ruled that each of their cases would go forward to a grand jury for possible indictment.

Patel, 52, left the Exxon gas station he owned and ran on Clemson Boulevard around 5:30 p.m. on July 1.

He had made several calls to Kyndra Howell, said detective Danny Barton of the Anderson County Sheriff's Office.

Howell and one of her friends eventually told investigators that Patel had been paying Howell for sex.

Patel drove to Howell's house in Homeland Park and at some point that evening Howell pitched a crime to two friends who were outside her home.

She told the two — Zachary Gantt, 18, and Jeremiah Johnson, 29 — that Patel had hundreds of dollars and asked if they wanted to rob him, Barton said.

Gantt and Johnson asked Howell, 22, to move Patel to another bedroom without an exterior door, Barton said.

After Patel moved, the two men went in and began assaulting Patel, tieing him up with telephone cord and a belt and beating him, Barton said, as he read from confessions Gantt and Johnson had given.

Patel had $70 and several credit cards.

He gave his assailants a personal identification number (PIN), but it was either an incorrect number or they couldn't get it to work. Howell and Johnson each left to try the credit cards and Howell called several banks where Patel had accounts, with no success, Barton said.

Seized security video from cameras mounted at Howell's house don't show all the entrances and it was unclear exactly when, but at some point 21-year-old Ezra Williams showed up at Howell's house, Barton said.

The video shows only the front of the house.

Williams continued the assaults, taking a knife from the kitchen to cut Patel, squirting bug spray into his eyes and heating the knife on a burner before using it on Patel, Barton said.

"They were there for quite a while trying to get the PIN numbers," Barton said. The three men went in and out of the room while Howell was never far away, he said.

Johnson suggested that the group could take Patel out and kill him, Barton said.

About 10 hours after Patel went to Howell's house, the three men left with Patel, first stuffing him in the trunk of his Honda sedan and quickly moving him to the backseat, where blood pooled, Barton said.

After driving to the secluded location, the three took Patel out of the car, asking again for the PIN. Johnson said Patel gave them the same PIN he had before, Barton said.

The confessions of both Johnson and Gantt say that Williams stood beside Patel and shot the businessman once in the head with a 9-mm handgun.

When they returned to Howell's home, another man, who is not charged in connection to Patel's death, was paid with drugs to clean the car, which he believed to be wet with mud, Barton said.

Gantt led Barton and investigators to where Patel's body was found nearly two weeks after Patel was last seen. Gantt's attorney, Hugh Welborn, pointed out the cooperation.

The four accused of murder are each represented by different attorneys. Williams is accused of being the shooter, but the others face murder charges because of their alleged knowledge and alleged involvement.

During the Friday hearing, Williams and Howell sat near each other with their attorneys Scott Robinson and Scott McElhannon while Barton detailed the evidence. Gantt and Johnson appeared later with their attorneys Welborn and Gordon Senerius with Barton again describing the case.

The confessions of Johnson and Gantt were not recorded on video or with audio tapes, Barton admitted under questioning. Williams did not talk to investigators and Howell said little besides that her life was threatened, Barton said. The detective added that Howell appeared on her surveillance video and did not look like someone who had been threatened.

The four suspects are all being held at the Anderson County Detention Center and no bond has been set for their release.

Barton said Johnson took the $70 from Patel and gave $30 to Howell for her rent and kept the rest for himself.